Alyssa
How Grey's Anatomy Sucked My Breath Away Growing up, I was diagnosed with a condition known as Cystic-Bronchiectasis and pulmonary fibrosis. Bronchiectasis is an uncommon disease, which results in the abnormal and permanent distortion of one or more of the conducting airways. Bronchiectasis, unfortunately, has no cure, and I want to change that by working in the medical field. I want to find a cure, so that way people like me do not have to suffer. Cystic-Bronchiectasis is a disease that affects roughly 10% of people who have a form of lung cancer. A person with Cystic-Bronchiectasis can go their whole life with little to no symptoms. With this disease, I have to watch the things I do… especially going outside in cold weather. My lungs are not able to properly expel mucus, which can cause complications at times. On another hand, pulmonary fibrosis is a lung condition that sucks… your breath away. Pulmonary fibrosis is a lung disease that occurs when lung tissue becomes damaged and scarred. The tissue becomes thickened and stiff which makes it difficult for an individual’s lungs to work properly. As pulmonary fibrosis worsens, an individual becomes progressively more short of breath. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy when I was eight, and I have been watching it ever since. When I first started watching the show, I wanted to become a surgeon, and I could not imagine doing anything else. I wanted to help save lives. As I continued to watch the show, my interest in the medical field grew. This show is not just a form of “entertainment” to me; it is also an educational experience. Grey’s Anatomy is a show that circulates around the main character, Meredith Grey, and her friends/co-workers at Seattle Grace Hospital. The show is 15 seasons long, which is exactly 338 episodes total or 15,210 minutes of my life (as of the latest episode). When the show began in 2005, Meredith was just a naïve intern who wanted to become an amazing surgeon. In 2016, she ended up becoming the head of General Surgery at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. One of the many reasons why I love Grey’s Anatomy is because the producers of the show make sure that their characters change (personality wise). The producers change and adapt the characters over time so that way the audience can connect and relate to each individual person in the show. Being able to connect to the show is a big deal for me, especially with how close to home some of the episodes reach. In one of the episodes, an Ex-Vivo lung transplant takes place. An Ex-Vivo transplant is a procedure where surgeons take damaged donor lungs, typically, they are lungs that they would normally throw away, and repair them on bypass. This really hits close to home for me because my grandfather received a lung transplant in August of 2018 and is currently still fighting the rejection phase. Besides my grandfather receiving a new set of lungs, I am still currently on the list to receive pulmonary transplantation (lung transplant). Fighting every day isn’t fun but Grey’s Anatomy makes it worth it because I can sit down and relax while learning about something I truly love so that one day, I can help save lives.